Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Sunset for Sense

Kent County Council features in the latest issue of Private Eye with a short but succinct piece on the £110,000 "cast down the drain" in supporting the defunct Manston airport operator EUJet. It also points out how the former cabinet member for regeneration Alex King came in for no criticism from the scrutiny committee but enjoyed a promotion to deputy leader of the council.What will they make of the report into the delivery of the Turner Centre? After £10 million and no sign of the gallery most would expect there to be a fair amount of introspective thought going on to get to the bottom of the debacle. Fear not, rather than honestly investigating exactly what went wrong they've decided to give themselves a simple judgement and rate the delivery of the project as "excellent". That's right folks - KCC's management of the Turner Centre scheme is excellent, so don't bother disagreeing because it's official.It's a sad sign of business as usual so forget any high expectations, or any expectations at all, of the revamped scheme. Even if it's another long tortuous waste of effort and cash those in charge will be writing their own reports on their conduct and the score will be a pathetically predictable ten out of ten, even if everyone down here is delivered a fat juicy zero.

It's a political disease inherited from National Govt.The NHS is better than it's ever been.We are spending more on Education,There is no crisis in Public Transport.Etc. etc.Hence:The Turner Centre is a resounding success.We will not build on land set aside for public use.We are spending more on local facilities.Etc etc.